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EDF, the French energy group, could be forced to sell some of its power stations in France to help to fund its £12.2 billion acquisition of Britain's nuclear industry, it admitted yesterday. EDF shocked investors by unveiling a fall of nearly 40 per cent in annual profits and warning that its debt pile had increased to nearly €25 billion (£22.5 billion) after a string of acquisitions, including those of British Energy, the UK nuclear generator, and America's Constellation Energy. Pierre Gadonneix, the chief executive, said that EDF, which is 85 per cent owned by the French State, was aiming to cut its debt by at least €5 billion by the end of 2010 and that much of this would be achieved through asset sales.

Areva and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding broke ground Wednesday on the first manufacturing facility for heavy commercial nuclear reactor components to be built in the US in 35 years. Michael Rencheck, CEO of Areva NP, said in an interview that once operational in mid-2012, the plant will turn out all of the heavy components needed for one Evolutionary Power Reactor a year. That involves a reactor vessel, four steam generators, and four reactor coolant pumps, he said. The plant will be built on Northrop Grumman property in Newport News, Virginia. The joint venture represents a $360 million investment and will have a global market, supplying heavy components for future EPR reactors in the US and other EPR projects, according to Rencheck. UniStar Nuclear Energy, a joint venture of Constellation Energy and France's EDF Group, is seeking a license from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate an EPR at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland.

Whenever I read anything in the newspaper about the proposed purchase by Electricite de France of 49.99% of Constellation Energy's nuclear business, I cringe. The French company wants to build a double-size third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs. The mere existence of any nuclear reactor causes unimaginable harm to the public and environment every-single-day. Plutonium is considered weapons-grade when it contains 93 percent Pu-239. The plutonium that would be used in the new reactor is 94 percent Pu-239. A single speck of Pu-239 in the lung will cause lung cancer. Pu-239 has a half life of a bit over 24,000 years. This is a major health risk.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, Duke Energy, Areva, USEC Inc. and UniStar Nuclear Energy said Thursday they formed an alliance to build a nuclear power plant at a U.S. Department of Energy site in Piketon, Ohio. Dubbed as the Southern Ohio Clean Energy Park Alliance, the partnership will evaluate the site as a potential location for a new nuclear power plant, including preparing a plant siting study and licensing documents for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. UniStar is a joint alliance between France's EDF and Constellation Energy /quotes/comstock/13*!ceg/quotes/nls/ceg (CEG 26.32, -0.50, -1.86%) . The clean energy park comes after a DOE effort to convert former weapons sites for energy production. Duke will manage the project, provide project oversight and serve as the applicant for any NRC licensing applications.

A statewide SWAT team exercise at a firing range on the secured grounds of a nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland was halted this month after stray bullets shattered glass and struck a command center near the plant's reactors, officials said yesterday. Reactor safety at the Calvert Cliffs plant in Lusby was never compromised, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Constellation Energy Group, which operates the facility.

The proposed third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant has received Maryland's final approval. In an order made public Monday, the state's Public Service Commission affirmed a hearing examiner's approval of a certificate of public convenience and necessity for UniStar Nuclear Energy to build the reactor at the plant, which is along the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby and operated by Constellation Energy Group.

A labor agreement for the potential construction of a new nuclear unit at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland was signed with Bechtel Construction Co., the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department, or BCTD, said June 1. Bechtel and the BCTD said in April 2008 that they were negotiating a labor agreement to lay out the terms for wages, benefits, work hours and working conditions for skilled craft workers on UniStar Nuclear Energy's planned Calvert Cliffs-3 project. UniStar, a joint venture of Constellation Energy and EDF Group, wants to build a fleet of Areva US-EPRs in the US, beginning with a new unit at its two-reactor Calvert Cliffs site.

The Department of Energy has narrowed the list of proposed new nuclear power plants it is considering for $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees down to four from five, a spokeswoman said. "We have proceeded to due diligence with four applications for nuclear loan guarantees that are farthest along in the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] application process," the spokeswoman said. "We have not made any final decisions and have not eliminated any of the applicants." New reactors at Southern Co.'s (SO) Vogtle plant in Georgia, Scana Corp.'s ( SCG) Summer plant in South Carolina, Constellation Energy Group's (CEG) Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland and NRG Energy Inc.'s (NRG) South Texas plant are among the projects still in the running for federal loan backing. Under the loan guarantee program, the government promises to assume the companies' debt obligations if they default on loans for the nuclear projects.

An official charged with weighing the pros and cons of building a third nuclear reactor at the Calvert Cliffs power plant recommended Wednesday that state energy regulators approve the project. Constellation Energy Group and a French partner are seeking permission to expand Constellation's plant in Calvert County, work that Gov. Martin O'Malley and others say will help address a predicted electricity shortage while slowing customer rate increases. The approval proposed Wednesday by Public Service Commission hearing examiner Joel M. Bright will become final May 29, unless the commission or one of the parties objects.

"The weather power hits keep on coming, but this time it's nuclear power at the Calvert Cliffs plant in Lusby, Md. Melting snow may be behind the recent shutdown of the plant. It is believed to have leaked through the plant's roof and onto an electrical breaker, said David Fritz of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. Federal inspectors started looking at the plant on Monday. The two reactors went down the Thursday after one of two electrical distribution buses failed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said."

"U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Friday that the Obama administration hopes to issue nuclear loan guarantees "soon" as part of a broader plan to speed up loan guarantees, but that the government is running into problems finalizing the subsidies. "We're going to be accelerating our loan-guarantee process even more," Chu told reporters in a briefing to discuss the administration's priorities for 2010. Chu said that nuclear loan guarantees would come "soon," but that getting them finalized was "more complicated than I thought." Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG), NRG Energy Inc. (NRG), Scana Corp. ( SCG) and Southern Co. (SO) are expected to receive the first guarantees for nuclear projects. Government support is viewed as essential because of high costs, lengthy timetables and a history of cost overruns in the construction of nuclear reactors."

"On Nov. 4, 2008, two divers were cleaning sludge and silt from an entry bay for water pumps that serve Constellation Energy Nuclear Group's Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant near Oswego, N.Y. In the midst of the operation, the diver and the hose tender shifted their positions and the diver lost control of a plastic suction hose, leaving its trailing section in front of one of the water pipe entries. The force of the water flow, at 9,000 gallons a minute, severed a section of hose and sucked it into one of the system's pumps, fouling it. As the team tried to cope with that problem, a smaller piece of the unattended free end of the hose was pulled into a second water pump, according to an inspection report by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

Unistar Nuclear Energy is seeking federal approval to build a new nuclear reactor at the Calvert Cliffs plant on the west bank of the Chesapeake Bay, just 45 miles from Washington, D.C., and 55 miles from Baltimore. At 1,600 megawatts, the new reactor would be easily the largest in the United States - and, at $10 billion, perhaps the most expensive. Supporters claim it will go a long way toward meeting future energy needs - and would do so in a "clean" manner.

As the Maryland Public Service Commission began public hearings this week on a potential new nuclear reactor, the debate about nuclear energy's cost and effectiveness continues. The Maryland Public Interest Research Group released a report recently saying a new reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant would lead to higher electric costs for Maryland ratepayers. The new plant's cost continues to escalate, and the project would likely receive substantial federal subsidies, the Baltimore organization says.

UniStar Nuclear Energy and state officials are in a dispute about new conditions the state wants to impose for building a third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.

Calling it the "beginning of the beginning," Duke Energy chairman, president and CEO James Rogers Thursday officially kicked off the effort to bring 400 to 700 new permanent jobs to Piketon within roughly the next decade. Advertisement The process will be pursued by a newly created partnership whose aim is to construct a new nuclear power facility in Piketon. And while it will take a considerable amount of time to complete, officials are hopeful it will lead the way to new life in a county that is presently facing 15.1 percent unemployment and routinely ranks among the highest jobless rates in the state. "It will, I think, help revitalize the economy of this part of the state," Gov. Ted Strickland said, adding that the project would make Ohio the only state including next-generation nuclear power production in its energy portfolio.